Closure-operating mechanism



June 17, 1930, G. G. CANDEE CLOSURE OPERATING MECHANISM Filed Jan. 23, 1928 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 I N VEN TOR. @5054: 5 d/wz-z ATTORNEYS.

June'l7, 1930. s. G. CANDE E ,7

I CLOSURE OPERATING MECHANISM I Filed Jan. 25, 1928 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 A. v. I L H n INVENTOR. 'faza' 9/1/05:

ATTORNEYS.

I Jane 17, 1930. q, G, CANDEE 1,764,150

CLOSURE OPERATING MECHANI SM Filed Jan. 25, 1928 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 INVENTOR iaeai .4. (291/055 ATTORNEY Patented June 17, 1930 GEORGE G. CANIDEE, OF LONG BEACH, CALIFORNIA CLOSURE-OPERATING MECHANISM Application. filed January 23, 1928.

My invention relates to and has for a purpose the provision of a closure operating mechanism particularly adapted although not necessarily, for use in opening and closing the doors of a garage, and by which the labor incident to performing these operations manually, will be eliminated.

It is another purpose of my invention to provide a closure operating mechanism by 10 which the doors are adapted to be automatically opened or closed according as a vehicle approaches or has left the garage to the end that the necessity for an occupant of the vehicle to leave the latter and manually open the doors when desiring to drive the vehicle into the garage or close thedoors after the vehicle has left the garage will be eliminated thus resulting in a considerable saving of time as well as obviating the annoyances incident to one having to perform these operations in inclement weather.

It is a further purpose of my invention to provide a closure operating mechanism which is durable in construction; positive in 25 operation; and preferably hydraulically operated in such manner that water at the pressure supplied to consumers for domestic use will furnish ample power for actuating the doors, the mechanism preferably includeo ing a valve unit for controlling the flow of water to and from a piston and cylinder unit operatively associated with the doors and being capable of actuation manually or in response to the weight of a vehicle imposed upon a device in the driveway leading to the garage, to effect the opening or closing of the doors according as the vehicle is traveling towards or away from the garage.

I will describe only one form of closure to operating mechanism embodying my invention and will then point out the novel features in claims.

In the accompanying drawing, Fig. 1 is a horizontal sectional view illuscf; trating one form of closure operating mechanism associated with a garage and driveway leading thereto;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional view taken on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1 and looking in the direction of the arrows;

Serial No. 248,832.

Fig. 3 is a vertical sectional View taken on the line 33 of Fig. 1 and looking in the direction of the arrows;

Fig. 4 is a sectional view taken on the line 4l4= of Fig. 3 and looking in the direction of the arrows;

Fig. 5 is a detail sectional View taken on the line 55 of Fig. 1 and looking in the direction of the arrows;

Fig. 6 is a fragmentary perspective view illustrating the operative connection between a wheel actuated device and control valves embodied in my invention; and

Figs. 7, 8, and 9 are diagrammatic views illustrating various positions occupied by the wheel actuated device and control valves.

Referring specifically to the drawing in which similar reference characters designate similar parts in each of the several views, my invention, for the purpose of illustration, is shown associated with a conventional form of garage G for housing a vehicle, the garage having a pair of closures G in the form of vertically swinging doors hingedly mounted at 10 and co-operating to close the entrance opening of the garage to which leads a driveway D.

My invention in its present embodiment comprises a mechanism which in the present instance is in the form of a hydraulically g operated piston and cylinder unit U located within the garage, for actuating the closures G; a valve unit V also within the garage for controlling the operation of the piston and cylinder unit; and a wheel operated de vice in the form of a platform P for actuat-' ing the valve unit V the device being disposed in the driveway D in the path of movement of the wheels of a vehicle when approaching or leaving the garage.

The piston and cylinder unit U comprises a cylinder 11 supported in a horizontal position along the longitudinal center line of the garage in-a plane immediately below the upper edge of the closures C; and'to rigidly 95 support the cylinder in this position a bracket 12 in the form of a rod is provided with inverted L shaped ends 13 which are secured to suitable cross beams 14 constituting a part of the framework of the garage iii-t! valves.

or built into the latter for this purpose, the cylinder being secured to the horizontal portion of the bracket 12 by means of straps 15, or in any other suitable manner.

WVithin the cylinder 11 is a piston 16 having a piston rod 17 which projects from the forward end of the cylinder through a studing box 18 for operative connection to the closures C. For this purpose the piston rod is connected at 19 to a cross head 20 slidably mounted on the horizontal portion of the bracket, while arms 21, one for each of the closures, are pivotally connected at their rear ends to the crosshead, and extend forwardly in divergent relation for pivotal connection to brackets 22 secured to the inner side of the closures C, so that movement of the piston in the cylinder from one extreme position to the other or vice versa will accordingly move the closures to closed or open positions, all of which is clearly shown in Fig. l in full and broken lines respectively.

For moving the piston from one extreme position to the other, water from a source of supply under pressure is preferably employed, and I have found in practice that the pressure of water as supplied to'consumers for domestic use is ample for this purpose and furnishes sufficient power to actuate the closures. lVater is adapted-to be admitted to or exhausted from the cylinder ll adjacent its ends, through ports 23 and 24 which communicate respectively with pipes 25 and 26 leading to the valve unit V which controls the flow of water in such manner that water from the source of supply is adapted to be admitted to either end of the cylinder and simultaneously discharged from its other end into a suitable drain. I

The valve unit V comprises an L-shaped bracket 27 which is rigidly secured in any suitable manner to'the floor of the garage in the position shown in Figs. 1 and 3, and to the vertical portion of the bracket is secured a pair of conventional 3-way valves 28 and 29 which are connected through the medium of distributing pipes 30 and 31 to a main supply pipe 32 leading from the source of water supply under pressure and having therein a check valve 33 opening toward the The valves are also connected by a short length of pipe 34 to a common discharge pipe 35 which leads to a suitable drainage system and is provided with a cutoff valve 36, and the valve 28 is connected to the pipe 25 while the valve 29 is connected to the pipe 26, the arrangement and relation of the piping with respect to the ports of the valvesbeing clearly shown in Figs. 7 to 9, inclusive, and will beunderstood.

The valves 28 and 29 are provided with levers37 connected together at their free ends by a pair of links 38 so that the valves will be simultaneously actuated. The valves can be manually actuated simultaneously by means of a hand lever 39 pivoted at 40 on the bracket 27 and having a slotted connection at its lower end with a pin 41 carried by the links 38 and projectingfrom one side thereof as shown in Fig. 6. It will be clear that when the levers 37 occupy the one extreme position shown in Fig. 7 water from the supply pipe 32 will be free to flow,

through the valve 28 and then through the pipe 25 and port 23 to the cylinder 11 at the forward side of the piston 16, and that water in the cylinder at the rear side of the piston is free to discharge from the cylinder into the discharge pipe 35 through the port 24, pipe 26, valve 29, and pipe 34, so that therefore the piston 16 will be moved from the extreme position shown in broken lines Fig. 1) to that shown in full lines, to there by move the closures C to closed position. However, when the levers occupy the other extreme position as shown in Fig. 9, water from the supply pipe 32 will be free to flow through the valve 29, pipe 26, port 24, to

the rear side of the piston 16, and that water v The valves are adapted to be actuated to effect movement of the closures G to open or closed position, in response to actuation of the platform P by a wheel of a vehicle, and the platform comprises a rectangular plate 42 having turned downedges and being'pivotally mounted medially between its ends at 43 on brackets 44 secured'to a base plate 45 anchored in any suitable manner in the driveway at a point sufficiently far in advance of the garage to allow a vehicle to occupy the space between theplatform and garage and yet permit theclosures C when swinging open or closed, to clear the vehicle. The platform is disposed in the path of movement of the front and rear wheels on one side of the vehicle and is normally urged to a horizontal position'by means of leaf springs 47 arranged in opposed relation and secured atone of their ends to the base plate 45 while their other ends are curved and bear against the underside of the platform. The

tension of the springs is such that the plata person standing on either end of the platform will be ineifective to rock the latter.

The platform is operatively connected to the links 38 so that rocking movements of the platform will be transmitted to the valves 28 and 29, and to this end the platform is provided at its outer side edge with a depending arm 48 projecting into a pocket 49 formed in the driveway and pivotally connected at its lower end to a rod 50 slidably mounted in a tube 51 inclined upwardly towards the garage so that the far end of the rod 50 will emerge from the tube at a point slightly above the floor level of the garage and in advance of the valve unit V, at which point it is pivotally connected to a yoke 52 slidably mounted on a shoe 53 anchored to the floor of the garage in front of the valve unit, all of which is clearly shown in Figs. 1 and 3. The yoke is so related to the valve unit that the pin 41 projecting from the links 38 is received in the yoke and is disposed in the path of movement of the upstanding arms 54 of the yoke. It will be noted that the movement imparted to the yoke in response to movement of the platform P from one inclined position to the other is twice the distance plus the diameter of the pin 41, necessary to move the links 38 and hence the valves 28 and 29 from one extreme position to the other, and that the distance between the arms 54 of the yoke, is equal to such movement plus the diameter of the pin so that a lost motion connection will be provided between the pin and yoke.

The operation of the mechanism is as follows:

Let it be assumed that the closures C occupy their closed position shown in Fig. 1 and that the valves occupy the position shown in Fig. 7 so that the pressure of water from the supply pipe 32 will operate through valve 28, pipe 25, port 23 to act against the forward side of the piston 16 to maintain the closures closed. The platform P will of course occupy its normal horizontal position so as to dispose the yoke 52 with the pin 41 positioned with respect to the arms 54 of the yoke as shown in Fig. 7

The left front wheel of a vehicle traveling in the driveway and approaching the garage will ride onto the platform and will rock the latter from the position shown in Fig. 7 to that shown in Fig. 8, but due to the lost motion connection between the pin- 41 and yoke 52, this movement of the platform is ineffective to actuate the valves 28 and 29. However, when the front wheel passes the pivotal point of the platform, the latter will be rocked to the position shown in Fig. 9, thus causing the yoke 52 to engage and move the pin 41 a sufficient distance to move the valves 28 and 29 to the position shown in this figure. Water from the supply pipe 32 will be admitted now to the rear side of the piston 16 through valve 29, pipe 26, and port 24, while the water previously admitted to the forward side of the piston will be free. to discharge into the drain pipe 35 through port 23, pipe 25, valve 28, and pipe 34, so that the piston will be moved from the position shown in full lines in Fig. 1 to that shown in broken lines, thus moving the closures C to open position.

When the front wheel rides off of the platform, the latter will return to its normal horizontal position, and it will be clear that although the rear wheel, when riding onto.

the platform will reverse the position of the valves 28 and 29 so that the closures will again start to close, this reversal will only be momentary as the rear wheel upon pass ing the pivotal point of the platform will again rock the latter to the position shown in Fig. 9 and thus cause the valves to be restored to the position to which they were moved by the front wheel.

After the vehicle has been driven into the garage through the side door 55, and it will be clear that when it is desired to remove the vehicle from the garage, the operator again and reversely actuates the hand lever 39 to cause the valves 28 and 29 to be moved to the position shown in Fig. 9 so that water from the supply pipe 32 will be admitted to the rear side of the piston, thus causing the closures C to be moved to open position.

After the vehicle has been backed out of the garage and its left rear wheel rides onto the platform P, the latter will be rocked to the position shown in Fig. 9, but this movement will be ineffective to actuate the valves 28 and 29 due to the lost motion connection between the pin 41 and yoke 52. However, when the rear wheel passes the pivotal point of the platform, the latter will be rocked to the position shown in Fig. 8, thus actuating the valves to admit water from the supply pipe 32 to the forward side of the piston 16, and causing the closuresC to be moved to closed position.

From the foregoing description it will be manifest that my invention entirely eliminates the necessity of the operator leaving the vehicle in order to open the doors of the garage when desiring to enter the latter or closing the doors after driving out of the garage, thus resulting in a considerable saving of time as well as the elimination of manual labor and the annoyance of leaving the car during inclement weather to manually perform these operations.

- claims.

I claim:

1. A closure operating mechanism' comprising means adapted to be operatively connected to a closure and responsive to fluid pressure to move" the closure to open or closed position, means adapted for connection to a source of fluid supply under pressure for controlling the supply of fluid.

to the first means in such manner that the latter will be moved by the fluid to one or the other of its positions according as the control means occupies one position or another, and manually operable means for moving the control means, a wheel operated device for actuating the control means, and a lost motion operative connection between the wheel operated; device and-the control means by which the latter is moved to one or the other of its positions according as the wheel operated device is moved to one position or another, yet allows independent actuation of the control means to one or the other of its positions, by the manually operable means.

2; A closure operating mechanism comprising a piston'and cylinder unit, means'by which the unit is adapted for operative connection to a closure of the entrance opening of a garage, to move the closure to closed or open position according as the piston of the unit is moved to one position or another, a valve unit for controlling the supply and discharge of fluid from the cylinder, includ ing a pairof valves connected to a source of fluid supply under pressure and to a fluid discharge, fluid conduits, one for each of the valves, connected to the cylinder, through which fluid from the source of supply is adapted to be admitted to the cylinder at one side of the piston and fluid at the other side of the piston discharged from the cylinder 7 into said fluid discharge, or vice versa, ac-

cording as the valves occupy one position or another, levers connected m the valves, a

link'connected to the levers for simultaneously aetuatingthe latter and hence the valves, a pin carried'by the link, a plat form mounted for rocking movement and adapted to be disposed @in' the driveway leading to the garage and in the path of movement of wheels of a vehicle traversing the driveway, means for normally urging the platform to a horizontal position, the

platform being movable under the weight of the vehicle, to one inclined position and then another as a wheel of the vehicle rolls over the platform and an operative connection between the platform and pin operable in response to movement of the wheel over the platform to actuate the pin and thereby move the valves to one or the other of their positions according as the vehicle is traveling towards or away from the garage to accordingly effect movement of the closure to open or closed position.

3. A closure operating mechanism compr1s1ng a piston and cylmder unit, means by which the unit is adapted for operativeconvalve unit for controlling the supply and discharge offluid from the cylinder, including a pair of valves connected to a source of fluid supply under pressure and to a fluid discharge, fluid conduits, one for each of the valves, connected to the cylinder, through which fluid from the source of supply is adapted to be admitted to the cylinder at one side of the piston and fluid at the other side of the piston discharged from the cylinder into said fluid discharge, or vice versa, according as the valves occupy one position or another, a wheel actuatingdevice comprising a platform mounted for rocking movement and adapted to be positioned in the driveway leading to the garage, and in the path of movement of a wheel of a vehicle traversing the driveway, a lever secured to the platform, means for actuating the valves including a pin, arod connected to the lever move the valves to one position or the other according as the platform is moved from 7 one position to another orvice versa, Whereby the piston will be actuated to move the closure to open or closed position.

' 4:. A closure operating mechanism comprising a piston and cylinder unit, means by which the unit is adapted for operative con:

nection to a closure to move the latter to open or closed position according as the piston of the unit is moved to one extreme position or another, avalve unit for' con trolling the supply of fluid. to and the discharge of fluid from the cylinder of the unit, the valve unit comprising a pair of valves,

a .supply pipe connected to the valves through which fluid from a source'of-supply is adapted to be delivered to the valves, r a, discharge .pipe connected to the valves through which fluid is adapted to be dis charged from' the valves, a-pair of pipes connected to the valves and to said cylinder at opposite sides of its piston, the ports of the valves and said pipes being so positioned relative to each other that the supply pipe will be placed in communication with the cylinder at one side of its piston through one of said pair of pipes and valves while the cylinder at the other side of its piston will be placed in communication with the discharge pipe through the other of said pair of pipes and valves, or vice versa, according as the valves occupy one position or another, whereby the piston will be moved to one extreme position or the other, and means for actuating the valves, the supply pipe being provided with a check valve opening towards the valves and the discharge pipe being provided with a cut-off valve for the purpose described.

5. A closure operating mechanism comprising a piston and cylinder unit, means by which the unit is adapted for operative connection to a closure to move the latter to open or closed position according as the piston ot the unit is moved to one extreme position or another, a valve unit for controlling the supply of fluid to and the discharge or fluid from the cylinder of the unit, the valve unit comprising a pair of valves, a supply pipe connected to the valves through which fluid from a source of supply is adapted to be delivered to the valves, a discharge pipe connected to the valves through which fluid is adapted to be discharged from the valves, a pair of pipes connected to the valves and to said cylinder at opposite sides of its piston, the ports of the valves and said pipes being so positioned relative to each other that the supply pipe will be placed in communication with the cylinder at one side of its piston through one of said pair of pipes and valves while the cylinder at the other sins of its piston will be placed in communication with the discharge pipe through the other of said pair of pipes and valves, or vice versa, according as the valves occupy one position or another, whereby the piston will be moved to one extreme position or the other, and means for actuating the valves, the means for actuating the valves comprising levers, one for each of and connected to the valves, a link connected to the levers for simultaneously actuating the latter and hence the valves, manually operable means for actuating the link, a wheel actuated device comprising a tiltable platform over which wheels of a vehicle are adapted to roll, said platform being normally urged to a horizontal position and movable under the weight of the vehicle to one inclined position and then another as a wheel or" the vehicle rolls over the platform, and a lost motion operative connection between the platform and link by which the latter is actuated to move the valves to one position or the other according as the platform is moved to one inclined position or the other, yet allows independent actuation of the link by the manually operable means.

6. A closure operating mechanism comprising means adapted to be operatively connected to a closure and responsive to fluid pressure to move the closure to open or closed position, means adapted for connection to a source of fluid supply under pressure for controlling the supply of fluid to the first means in such manner that the latter will be moved by the fluid to one or the other of its positions according as the control. means occupies one position or another, manually operable means for actuating the control means, a wheel operated device for actuating the control means, and means for moving the control means to one or the other of its positions according as the wheel operated device is moved to one position or the other, the last means permitting the independent actuation of the control means by the manually operable means.

Signed at Los Angeles, in the county of Los Angeles and State of California, this 7th day of January, A. D. 1928.

GEORGE G. CANDEE. 

